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Pride and prejudice analysis on social class
Jane Austen as a social norm novelist
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Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a classic novel that allows the reader to understand how society was set up in early 19th century England. Roland Barthes said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” The readers of this classic novel question if the ethical standard outweighs the moral standards of society. Pride and Prejudice is set up in order to answer this question in a way that can captivate the reader in a romantic story based on two people of different social status. They go against the social protocols of whom to marry based on the opinion they have towards one another.
The novel starts out with the following sentence, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want
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Darcy along with Mr. Bingley pay a visit to the Bennet family. During that visit Mr. Bingley proposes to Jane, which she accepts, Elizabeth realizes that Mr. Darcy had regretted his previous action and helped them be together like they should have been. Lady Catherine de Bourgh goes to visit Elizabeth in Longbourn to discuss the rumors she has heard regarding her and her nephew. Lady Catherine makes it clear to Elizabeth that she wants her as far away as possible from her nephew and doesn’t approve of them being married. Elizabeth tells her that those rumors are just that but of rumors, however she finally admits her feelings towards Mr. Darcy to herself. After her discussion with Lady Catherine, Elizabeth beings to rethink her opinion of Mr. Darcy and comes to the conclusion that he is not the bad person everyone believes him to be, but that of him being a kind, caring, generous person whom she believes is worth loving. She believes that and other wonderful things due to the actions Mr. Darcy has done in order to prove to Elizabeth that he is not a proud man who only prides himself due to his fortune. Not only did he help unite Jane and Mr. Bingley, but he helped Elizabeth’s other sister Lydia avoid a scandal by paying for a wedding to take place between her and Mr. Wickham. When Elizabeth next sees Mr. Darcy she thanks him for what he has done for her and her family. He then proposes to her again, because Elizabeth sees that he has changed, she happily agrees to marry him. Despite everything she chooses to marry him for who he is, and not because how much money he
Elizabeth Bennet holds a few secrets from her family. While she is visiting the Collins’, Mr. Darcy enters the room Elizabeth is all alone in and abruptly declares his love for her. She politely declines his proposal for marriage, which turns into an angry accusation
Thinking that he truly has lost Elizabeth brings out a more sensitive and sympathetic side of Darcy, and he proposes a second time. This proposal however, marks the real release of his prideful ways, and as Austin put it “was as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do"(Austin 157). This proposal marks Darcy giving up his pride about social class, and Elizabeth being hurt by him and his judgments. She accepts, and they finally allow themselves to be happy.
Darcy, the illusion that Mr. Wickham had built surrounding himself was now shattered: “How different did everything appear in which he was concerned.” Elizabeth now realizes her mistakes, which her prejudice was built and hopefully will never fall for such deceit again. Mr. Darcy is not the only one who is haughty, Elizabeth’s pride takes a massive blow after reading the letter, “she grew absolutely ashamed.” Realizing her mistakes will make Elizabeth grow as a person as she realizes how despicable she was, and has learned from her mistakes. Elizabeth had always thought she had the perfect judgement, but in fact she was horribly blind: “Till this moment I never knew myself.” Elizabeth now sees that she has flaws and it got in the way of her judgement rendering it blind. It is in maturity that people see their flaws; now Elizabeth has to make sure the same mistakes does not happen again. It was only after her prejudice of Mr. Darcy was finally gone that Elizabeth realized her true feelings towards him: “She explained what it’s [the letter] effect on her had been, and how gradually all her former prejudice has been removed.” After reading the letter, Elizabeth was able to realize her flaws as a character and grow into maturity and because of that she was able to see her true feelings about Mr.
After everyone has left for Rosings, Elizabeth is still fuming from the news that Darcy was the cause of Jane and Bingley's break up. Elizabeth is then startled by the arrival of Darcy. After a few minutes of silence, Darcy shocks Elizabeth with a sudden declaration of love for her and a proposal of marriage. In the beginning Elizabeth is flattered in spite of her deeply rooted prejudice against Darcy. Elizabeth's feelings soon turn to rage as Darcy catalogs all the reasons why he did not pursue his feelings earlier. These reasons include her inferior social class and her family obstacles.
She emphasizes that marriages can only be successful if they are founded on mutual love. Elizabeth and Darcy 's relationship is really different from all the others in the novel. Elizabeth does not care about him being super rich and he does not find her the most beautiful. At the beginning, he thinks she is “tolerable”. They do not like each other at the beginning, they argue a lot and are really sassy towards each other. They are the opposite of amiable. Their relationship is far beyond just physical attraction. Darcy secretly helps out with Lydia 's situation. He does not want Elizabeth to be hurt nor does he want her family to ruin their repuation. He helps Elizabeth and does not bring it up, let alone brag about it. Love is not boastful. This shows the reader how contrasting Darcy and Collins ' characters are. “Elizabeth 's heart did whisper, that he had done it for her...” She has a feeling that Darcy is the one who helped out but she is not one hundred percent sure. Elizabethis wistful about saying so many bad things about him and she regrets her little speech when she rejected him. Unlike every other character in this novel, Darcy and Elizabeth took things slowly. Darcy purposes to her after a long time, when he was sure about his feelings for her. Even when she rejects him once he did not ask her over and over again, unlike
England, under James 1st rule was a vastly altered period compared to our now modern society. So many of the values held during this time, have now been discarded and forgotten. Jane Austen grew up in the Romantic period and experienced a world which was divided, whether through education, class, status, fashion, abilities, gender and etiquette. Her novel, Pride and Prejudice is counted as one of the great classics of English Literature. Austen engrosses readers to live in her world for a time and experience a society filled with matchmaking, romance, marriage and gossip. Every one of her characters is so distinctive and has a clearly outlined caricature. Each of their diverse values conveys a different thinking of the time. Pride and Prejudice is preoccupied with the gentry and most of the social aspects which consumed these people’s lives. There were so many expectations of how you would behave in public, but of course not all of these were upheld. Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas are four characters which keep such strong beliefs about the social norms. These characters are expressed so descriptively and through their personalities readers can learn just how the numerous social standards were received.
Darcy’s proposals help to manifest his personal growth by showing the difference in his manner, rationale, and result. His haughty words and actions are the crux of his indifference towards the feelings of others in the beginning of the novel. Although Mr. Darcy is ignorant of his own highfalutin attitude at first, the rejection of his proposal by Elizabeth is just the tocsin he needs to salvage the small amount of respect she still had for him. Through her rejection, he comes to terms with his own pride and prejudice against Elizabeth and her family. Also, he realizes that she is not one to marry for money or social status, but she wants to marry a man that she truly loves, which is a surprise to him. This radical modification of his attitude results in a second marriage proposal for Elizabeth, where he genuinely expresses his feelings. Although he is uncertain of her answer, he simply wants to make his love for her known. The slightly astonished Elizabeth immediately recognizes how much the tone and motive in his second proposal have changed from his first and also reveals her love for him. Mr. Darcy’s two proposals do not simply act as means to communicating his feeling to Elizabeth, but as a documentation of his significant change in
From the moment Elizabeth and Darcy meet, Elizabeth is blinded by prejudice and Darcy by pride though they like each other. Only when they admit the wrong they have done, especially Elizabeth, they are to be married. She should accept the right of Darcy to have some sense of pride toward his class and she has to learn to comply to social rules .therefore, it is not about marriage as much it is about learning to comply to rules. Elizabeth and Darcy will meet on common grounds. It is about finding moderation between nature represented by Elizabeth and art represented by Darcy. Only then the marriage would be successful.
The reader is first acquainted with Mr. Darcy's arrogance at the Meryton Ball. Speaking of Elizabeth Bennet, he so snobbishly says that she was, " tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me" (Austen 9). His feelings of superiority to the people of the town lend Mr. Darcy to be judged as a man with a repulsive and cruel personality. The women, who had found him dashingly attractive at first glance, deemed him a man unworthy of marriage because he offered no positive qualities other than wealth. Not only did Darcy refuse to dance with Elizabeth, but he makes it clear that no woman in the room was worthy or met his standards of a suitable partner stating that, " there is not another woman in this room, whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with" (Austen 8). In the beginning of the novel, Mr. Darcy is only concerned with the wealth and social standing of the people in the town. Because of their lesser social rank, he feels they are un-deserving of his presence and refuses to communicate with them. As the novel progressed, however, Darcy became more and more accepting of the Bennet family. Growing most fond of Elizabeth Bennet, the straightforward, clever daughter, he finally breaks and confesses his true feelings of love for her. "In vain...
While this is going on, Mr. Darcy realizes he has feelings for Elizabeth and proposes to her, this is the climax of the novel. She is astonished by his actions, and turns him flat. She explains that she feels he is arrogant, and feels he stood in the way of Jane and Mr. Bingley marrying, and also feels he is a cruel man, especially in his treating of Mr. Wickham, she is expressing her prejudice towards him. He leaves and they part very angry with each other. Mr. Darcy then writes Elizabeth a letter, explaining his feelings, defending his actions, and revealing the true nature of Mr. Wickham.
...children to search for spouses, meanwhile, Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst endeavor to persuade Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley not to marry women from lower social classes. Nevertheless, the reader learns to ignore the satirized characters of Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Hurst, and Miss Bingley and true love prevails when Elizabeth marries Mr. Darcy.
ELIZABETH’S IMPATIENCE to acquaint Jane with what had happened could no longer be overcome; and at length resolving to suppress every particular in which her sister was concerned, and preparing her to be surprised, she related to her the next morning the chief of the scene between Mr. Darcy and herself. Miss Bennet’s astonishment was soon lessened by the strong sisterly partiality which made any admiration of Elizabeth appear perfectly natural; and all surprise was shortly lost in other feelings. She was sorry that Mr. Darcy should have delivered his sentiments in a manner so little suited to recommend them; but still more was she grieved for the unhappiness which her sister’s refusal must have given him. “His being so sure of
The Regency Era had many social expectations that men and women were expected to follow: Austen portray these expectations through the interaction between Darcy and Elizabeth. Initially, both characters despised each other: Darcy is prideful and reluctant to marry Elizabeth due to her status and Elizabeth holds prejudice against the upper class. However, both fall in love as they realize how compatible they are. When Lady Catherine hears of this, she immediately tries to end it by pressuring Elizabeth to give up on Darcy, stating that “From their infancy, they have been intended for each other” (Austen 320). Lady Catherine is the epitome of the social chains that restrict people.
Spending more time with Darcy pushes her to accept how deeply she comes to care for him. She begins to doubt that Darcy will ever propose marriage again. Later, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Darcy’s aunt, comes to ensure that Elizabeth does not accept any type of proposal to Darcy. When speaking with Lady Catherine Elizabeth says that her answer to proposal will be up to her and her alone. She says that “he is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal” (Austen 351).
One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself.”(1.5.13)... ... middle of paper ... ... It is also a cultural phenomenon and is evident through the adaptation that is still occurring to the novel in present day.